Many animal feeding systems are known. Dry feed material can be distributed directly onto the ground or floor but significant wastage can occur from trampling and soiling by the animals. Containment of feed in troughs, or other feed receptacles, reduces wastage and spoilage by the animals.
Where large numbers of animals are grouped together, shy feeders can be disadvantaged by not getting access to the feed material until the more dominant animals are sated, leaving less desirable or even insufficient feed remaining. Troughs can be used to address this problem by improving access to feed for large numbers of animals. Troughs provide a relatively large perimeter length compared to the volume of contained feed.
When used outdoors, particularly in wet conditions, the ground surrounding troughs can become damaged by excessive trampling and soiling by the stock feeding at the trough. Mobile troughs can be readily successively relocated to fresh feeding sites to reduce or avoid excessive damage of outdoor feed sites. Mobile troughs used indoors can be moved to facilitate cleaning of floor at feeding sites.